Between the Lines
by Sailor Latias
Summary: Stop thinking for a minute your life is shit. Just fucking stop. It may just be better than you realize.


_Dear Diary,_

_It's only my first day, the first five minutes in fact, and I've already broken by using foul language. The girls in here are so scary. Threatening. Let me tell you about them. The headmistress said I could write all my thoughts here. You're a safe haven for me._

_Let's start with the headmistress, Ms. Regina Mills. She's really scary... let's leave it at that. She wears these official-looking pantsuits and she always seems to be butting heads with Ms. Emma Swan. I don't know what she does but they argued about where to put me while I was standing right in front of them like their child._

_Oh, I wish Phillip was here, but men aren't allowed where I am. I think the sign said Storybrooke School or something like that, but that's what they want you to think. They want to lure you into a false sense of security so it will be easier for them kill you in your sleep._

_This is a prison for women. I can't believe they make it sound so... light._

_Ms. Swan won the argument, by the way._

_I'm bunking with these three girls who look like they belong elsewhere better than down here. Regina wanted me with these other three girls but I don't think it mattered where I ended up, honestly. She and Emma probably just like to fight, like my aunts do. I wanted them to put me out, let me leave and go home to my family. Well, just Phillip. My aunts probably don't want me there, except for probably Great-Aunt Fauna. They're nuns. And I assume nuns are very busy people. But Phillip's nice, he'd take care of me._

_Everyone stared at me when I entered. Ms. Swan names them to me, but I don't remember how her voice sounds saying them so the names aren't important, I guess. Some names just roll off the tongue and it sounds right, you know? I'm not talking about pronunciation, just... the tone is what makes it memorable, not the name itself. Anyway, I digress; she tells them to show me around and left after giving me a pat on the shoulder. For good luck, I guess. At first, these girls actually looked pretty nice. But when the door slammed shut, their masks came off and that's when I think their murderous intentions returned._

_The first girl I looked at took my things and threw them on one side of this bed. It was two singles smushed together to create a double, but my things were on the left side and she told me that was where I would sleep. She slept on the right side; that's how it always was and I'd better get used to it because I don't have a choice. It was the same on the other side of the room where her friends, the other two girls, slept. They rotated before I came along, but now that I'm here, it's official who sleeps where. That girl, she had long black hair and these coal-black eyes. I didn't want to look at her for too long. She noticed and came right on over._

_"Who are you?" she demanded of me, putting her hand underneath my chin and forcing me to look at her by lifting it with two fingers._

_I put on a brave face and boldly responded, "My name is Aurora."_

_"Oh?" she said, her eyebrows raised, "Like Sleeping Beauty?" Before I could respond she pulled me over to the bed and made me sit on my side, grabbing my face and keeping my eyes on hers. You know what she said next? "Let me tell you something, Sleeping Beauty, this place isn't a fairytale. You'll wish it was as easy as pricking your dainty little finger to sleep a hundred years, and as promising as that sounds, it's not real. Even if we do get to sleep our time away in here, when we wake up, we're still in this shithole, so you better toughen up fast or there is no way out for you because your prince just isn't coming to save your ass. It's either you pull your weight, or we pull your face out of here."_

_She wouldn't let me look away, and when she finally did, she reached into the drawer that was on my side and pulled out a bag of cigarettes. Not a pack, a little bag. And she offered me one, which I politely refused._

_"Suit yourself," she muttered, walking away. After the other girls took one each, she called behind her back, before she slammed the door, "Don't be fucking sleeping all day, it's depressing as shit! Reminds me of mourning, and fuck knows too much of that happens around here."_

_I bit my lip before asking the other girls who she was. They rolled their eyes at me and looked away. Well, one of them did. The other one, she had short black hair, hazel eyes, and she sneered at me. Getting up from her desk, she came over, that wicked grin still going strong as she bent down in front of me, and she said in this silky-smooth voice that reminded me of Snow White, "Her name's Mulan. She's a bitch."_

_And then she spit in my face._


End file.
